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This is a must for new teachers! I think most new teachers underestimate the power of routine and expectations, especially at the beginning of a new school year. This serves as a good reminder about routines and activities that have worked well with my students, as I go into my 7th year. These all work with the most struggling 9th graders to the most advanced/AP 11th graders. (I have never taught seniors.)

I was wondering if you could do a video or a blog post about how you handle differentiation. I know that differentiation can take a lot of different forms, especially depending on your context. I used to teach at a tiny school that did not do tracking of any kind in the ELA department; I had students with IEPs, ELLs, gifted students, etc in the same class period. Other schools have levels like regular, honors, pre-AP, etc. Differentiation would look different between those two types of schools. The school that I moving to this August will be like the second category, and I will have a few “regular” classes” and a few honors classes.

Could you talk about your experiences with differentiation or helpful strategies? I know you touched on that topic just a little bit at the end of this video with the semester note packet for the IEP students, and I’m curious to hear more.

Agreed, Rachel. It took me way too many years to figure this out. Initially, I resisted the idea because I thought the kids would think a routine was stale; the exact opposite turned out to be true. They like the familiarity as we launch and we still do lots of various interesting and, yes, unpredictable things in the bulk of our time together. Glad our experience aligns! 🙂

Great suggestion, Julie! I definitely have room for tons of improvement in this area – my Big Plans are often thwarted by the daily reality of huge class sizes. Still, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve. I just added your suggestion to my “make this video” topic list. I have quite a few projects in line ahead of it, though, so be patient with me. I’ll get there…eventually. 😉

Hi Laura . . . I used your MUG’s this year with my 7th and 8th graders. I loved the notes about grammar. I have done some kind of bell work with my students because it gets them settled and ready for class and I get to do attendance. I have also used journals in my class since I first began teaching, but I changed from free writing journals to more academic writing. I used writing prompts and quotes and poems with my students. This way I do not have to read everything and I have a check list of what I am looking for with their journals. Once again, you rock. When I taught in Ohio, I taught at a school that was on the A/B 90 minute block. I enjoyed it. I also do SSR with my classes. My students read for 15 mins. on Tues. and Thurs. and they work on their reading logs or take RC quizzes. That’s all for me. Happy summer.

Hey Laura! I am a big fan of yours! I use your materials, but I use them a little differently in my classroom. I love the vocabulary words/lessons you created. However, I wanted to quiz my kids over the words they were learning, so I usually give five words at the beginning of the week, then over the course of the week I give activities for bellringers using those five words (create synonyms and antonyms, research etymologies, and make flashcards). But I also love the M.U.G shots, so I use them when I have those pesky five minutes left in class, or if I need a break from the vocabulary words (aka grading the quizzes), I take a break from the vocab lessons and just do M.U.G shots for one week. I did this routine last school year, and it worked well. I actually went through all of the M.U.G shots and most of the vocabulary lessons!

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ALL of your products, and I agree: bellringers are a must for classroom management!

I LOVE when teachers take my raw stuff and tailor it to fit their own routines and personalities, Katie. I never would’ve thought of chunking up the vocab. tasks like this, but I can see so much value in this approach. I also am now thinking some my extra MUG Shot slides would be awesome Quarter Trio challenge tasks. Oh, girl, you got me thinking… 🙂

Excellent review of strategies for the beginning of class! Even though I’ve been teaching high school English for over 18 years, I love the resources you’ve compiled on this page and I look forward to reading more of your blog in the coming weeks when I have some off time during the summer. I already am thinking about stealing your “Lit term Tuesday” activity. Question about that: do you share with students the entire list of terms at the beginning of the year before you hit each word? Wondering if the order of terms is specifically organized around the content you are reading/studying during a given week. If so, are students given an overview of thematic areas of study before you go through sequentially?

Using modern examples and having students provide their own examples is important in my classroom also. Thanks for sharing great ideas to stimulate us teachers during the summer months!
Marc

So glad you found my blog, Marc. I wish I could say that I had a masterfully coordinated schedule of lit. terms built to reflect our current week’s literary work, but I’m just not that organized. Sometimes, there is a nice convergence, but usually not. We just go for it. I don’t give out a master list of terms at the beginning of the year, but I agree that would be a great addition to my practice. Basically, I sat down one summer and wrote a list of all the terms I thought a kid would need to know to do well in any English class and went from there. Some of the terms are – I hope! – review for my high school kids, while others are new to them. For example, they all know protagonist and antagonist, but adding anti-hero and foil is usually new info. for most of my kids. Hope you’re enjoying a restful summer!

I hear you about hoping for a “nice convergence” in terms of content/material matching up with what students are learning in different classes. At the beginning of the school year, there always seems to be a concerted effort among Humanities teachers to align content throughout the year. But come November or December, the alignment gets out of whack and all one can hope for our those natural convergences that can occur and that students can benefit from.

Really enjoying your blog and will be exploring other topics posted here!
Marc

So glad you found me, Michelle. Welcome to the blog community! As for Twitter, that’s one path I haven’t yet walked. I have the blog, Pinterest, Facebook, TpT, and YouTube – more than enough for me for now. Be sure to subscribe to the blog, my home base, and you’ll get an email every time I upload something new. Thanks again! 🙂

I purchased your bell-ringers and I love them. I have been using them for a couple of years. In this video, you said you gave them quizzes afterwards. I can’t find those quizzes on TPT. Can you send me the link? Thanks

Thanks so much for your support of my work, Helene! Glad to know the materials are useful. For vocab. quizzes, I actually make those up on the fly for each and every period as I move through the day. There’s no product for this on TpT, but here’s a blog post and video explaining my easy-to-prep/easy-to-grade routine:https://laurarandazzo.com/2017/09/16/outsmart-the-cheaters/

Hello Laura! I’m Ada, a Spanish teacher in Puerto Rico. Looking to enrich my Spanish curriculum during the summer, I discovered your videos and your blog. Although our subjects are different your reading strategies, works with authors, bell ringers, etc., they are excellent and I have already started using them with my 7th and 8th grade students.

Unfortunately, I do not have the freedom that you have to plan my curriculum because I teach in a private school and the parents buy the books, so they demand that they should be used. As you can imagine, I have quite a few grammar exercises that must be answered. However, I manage to include activities that are more relevant to them.

I am thinking about including the “Words for Wednesday” activity and I have a question: Will it be appropriate to discuss the fifteen words of vocabulary, but announce which ones I will evaluate. (I know, it sounds weird, but the parents of private schools are very demanding with homework and tests of their children).

Hello Laura! I’m Ada, a Spanish teacher in Puerto Rico. Looking to enrich my Spanish curriculum during the summer, I discovered your videos and your blog. Although our subjects are different your reading strategies, works with authors, bell ringers, etc., they are excellent and I have already started using them with my 7th and 8th grade students. Unfortunately, I do not have the freedom that you have to plan my curriculum because I teach in a private school and the parents buy the books, so they demand that they should be used. As you can imagine, I have quite a few grammar exercises that must be answered. However, I manage to include activities that are more relevant to them. I am thinking about including the “Words for Wednesday” activity and I have a question: Will it be appropriate to discuss the fifteen words of vocabulary, but announce which ones I will evaluate. (I know, it sounds weird, but the parents of private schools are very demanding with homework and tests of their children).

Hi Ada! Greetings from the mountains of Idaho. 🙂 I definitely understand that you are in a tight corner, needing to please the customer…er, parent community. Could you quiz students on all of the words? You’ll might need to consider using a different format than my three-question format, of course. Still, I’m wondering why anyone would get mad about the smaller, more-frequent vocab. quiz model that I use. I mean, students need to study all of the words on the list in order to do well and, over the span of a semester, all of the words could be included in various quizzes. In case folks don’t know, I use a simple, no-prep quiz format that I talk in detail about here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fiH4DCQLvg Hope this helps. 🙂

Great question, katieny1974! Whenever possible, I’ll tack it onto our next class meeting day. The beginning of the period on an SSR Friday is also a good time to play catch-up when scheduling weirdness like this occurs. Thanks! 🙂